Accept This Gift!
Accept This Gift!
Whoever said February was a month of love? If we watch the news on TV, we see Democratic primary candidates launching an invasion with weapons of mass shameless demagoguery against an American President; we see a screaming banshee paranoia campaign against a new film about Jesus, Mel Gibson's "The Passion;" and we see a cat-fighting terrorist tactic war being waged by leftist self-styled "women's advocates" against the traditional values of Valentine's Day. Maybe it's time to turn the TV off ... and be at peace ... and wait ... and see what happens.
Actually Jesus never ceases to counsel that there is nothing to do but wait ... and see what happens. He says this because doing with our mind is a device we use to keep ourselves OUT of the experience we really, really, really want.
Jesus loves us so powerfully that when we open the door ever so slightly to feeling His love our minds are boggled into non-doing, and we find ourselves IN an experience of out-of-this-world joy and peace and rapture.
Would anyone like to imagine that the choice in the now moment is to be IN or OUT, and never mess with anything in between?
How did Jesus say it in the Bible? Maybe we can see our way through mistranslations and misinterpretations of the Bible and still catch the meaning of Jesus:
"Let what you say be simply `Yes' or `No'; anything more than this comes from evil." (Matthew 5:37) Revised Standard Version
"But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." (Matthew 5:37) King James Version
On the other hand, it is no longer necessary to attempt to solve the puzzle behind misinterpretations and mistranslations, because Jesus has given us clarification for the 21st century in his modern day revelation: A COURSE IN MIRACLES.
In His Course, Jesus tells us that from His viewpoint "communicate" has a far broader meaning than verbal utterances. He tells us that for Him communication is more akin to "communion." Jesus answers our prayer for enlightenment by telling us in His Course that when our whole being says "yea" to God, in that same moment our whole being is saying "nay" to that which is not eternal ... and therein lies salvation.
"If you would remember eternity, you must look only on the eternal. If you allow yourself to become preoccupied with the temporal, you are living in time. As always, your choice is determined by what you value. Time and eternity cannot both be real, because they contradict each other. If you will accept ONLY what is timeless as real, you will begin to understand eternity and make it yours." (ACIM Text, Chapter 10)
"When you perceive yourself without deceit, you will accept the real world in place of the false one you have made. And then your Father will lean down to you and take the last step for you, by raising you unto Himself." (ACIM Text, Chapter 11)
Now that would be a wonderful gift!
Since it is the month of Valentine's Day, do we dare consider ourselves worthy of a Valentine's gift from our Heavenly Father?
This Valentine's season occurs in an election year when the news media has lovingly provided us with seemingly unending gifts ... video briefs of Democratic candidates whose campaign rhetoric consists of never-ending verbalizations of nasty, hostile and hateful sentiments toward President George W. Bush, as if they are not talking about anybody real but about their own projections of the darkest reaches within their own minds.
We pray for and ask blessings for these Democratic candidates! They seem so far out of touch with the reality Jesus would have them experience. How is Jesus ever going to give them bigger Valentine's gifts than their campaign advisors have ever dreamed possible?
Not only do we ask God to enlighten these Democratic candidates, but may God keep us from falling into the dark negativity these candidates seem determined to lead us into.
Jesus has always taught that the beginning of salvation, the first kindergarten step toward heaven, is maintaining a positive attitude:
"You've got to accentuate the positive...
You've got to spread joy up to the maximum...
Okay, so Bing Crosby didn't write a gospel. But maybe Johnny Mercer, the song writer who wrote lyrics for Bing's 1944 movie "Here Come the Waves" was sitting around in 1943 doing nothing with his mind when the voice of Jesus popped in and spoke the words for him to write down.
Jesus has been giving his teachings to open minds for at least 2,000 years that we know of in many, many ways, wouldn't you say?
So we are preparing for Valentine's Day in an election year and until the candidates learn there is no benefit from spreading messages of gloom and doom, let us consider the possibility of saying "yea" or "nay," but nothing in between.
Let us focus on Who is really behind the scenes influencing not only all elections, but all choices in our lives ... if only we will listen.
But true willingness to listen involves willingness to know nothing. In His Course, Jesus puts it this way:
"Your part is very simple. You need only recognize that everything you learned you do not want. Say to yourself:
" 'I do not know what anything, including this, means. And so I do not know how to respond to it. And I will not use my own past learning as the light to guide me now.'
"By this refusal to attempt to teach yourself what you do not know, the Guide Who God has given you will speak to you." (ACIM Text, Chapter 14)
Oops! Sounds like saying "no" to past learning, "yes" to present wisdom, and not messing with anything that would attempt to blend the two.
But the question remains: Has Jesus prepared for us a really, really, really wonderful approach to His gifts this month of Valentine's Day?
Maybe we could try this. Maybe we could do what voters would do if they were truly wise: empty our minds of all preferences and of everything we may have heard one way or another, and then ask, "Holy Spirit, I should go see Mel Gibson's movie about Jesus, "The Passion," which will be in theaters later this month ... yes or no? ... yea or nay?
Who knows? Maybe viewing "The Passion" creates an experience.
Who knows? Maybe really experiencing "The Passion" amazes minds into inability to respond, resting them in total awe.
Who knows? Perhaps a mind in total awe is wide open ... and receives the greatest, most loving, most wonderful Valentine's gift of all!
Eliminate the negative...
Latch on to the affirmative...
Don't mess with Mister In-Between.
Bring gloom down to the minimum...
Have faith...
Or (otherwise) pandemonium...
Liable to walk upon the scene. (Bing 19:44)
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